A Nuggle's Guide to Nail Art Terms | Part 2

Hello there!

Today I'm back with my second and final part to my Nuggle's Guide to Nail Art Terms. If you missed the first, or wish to re-read it, your can find it here.

Otherwise, I'm back with my sister Tess and her boyfriend Juwan to quiz them about various nail related terms. When we left them last time, Tess was on a score of 7, out of a possible 15 and Juwan scored 5, so let's see who comes out on top!

HG
J: Hungry Jacks? Hungry Goblin? Definitely hungry goblin.
T: High definition? Oh wait that's a D.....
Well it's definitely not Hungry Goblin... HG is actually an abbreviation for Holy Grail, which is a product/s that is the best ever, in your opinion, something you swear by and would recommend to others (see my HG nail products here, if you're interested).

Holo
J: Something see through. Like a see through nail polish.
T: The ones that the ILNP brand do. The ones that change colour? Or are really sparkly?
Yup, these polishes are super-sparkly. Holo (or holographic for long) polishes have pigments in the them that means when you hold them in the light, you can see a rainbow of different colours. And yes, ILNP do amazing holos.

Jelly
J: Squishy. Jelly polish.
T: Gel nail polish. Do you call that jelly for short?
While calling gel polish jelly actually kind of does make sense, a jelly is a type of polish that is rather sheer and when built up of a couple of coats, has a transparent quality and squishyness about it that is reminiscent of jelly, so well done to Juwan for that one.

Lemming
J: White nail polish, like a lamington. And with yellow in it too.
T: Sounds like a fish.
No and no. A lemming is a polish that you really, really want, and can often be hard to find. And no, I have no clue why it's called a lemming.

Birefringence and Masquerade by ILNP (also, sorry for the dodgy white balance...)

Multichrome
J: Multiple colours of chrome.
T: More than two colours in one polish, otherwise it would be a duochrome. Ha I'm such a technical genius. (looked incredibly pleased at her knowledge)
To be honest, I don't know how widely used this term is. For me, a multichrome is different to a duochrome in that a duochrome has predominantly two colours, whereas a multichrome has a much fuller colour spectrum, like the two above. So yes, exactly what Tess said.
Nail Mail
J: You send nail in the mail.
T: When you get a parcel with nail stuff in it. 
Half points to Juwan for this and full points to Tess. I think she's seen enough of my parcels to know what nail mail is!

Nubbins
J: Short things.
T: Nails that are really short.
Yes, these are short nails. There's not really much more to say than that.

Nuggle
J: Nuggets. (I asked him how this related to nails but all I got was serious look and 'Nuggets', so I guess the importance of nuggets translates all boundaries)
T: .... ?????? .... (she didn't say anything, just looked confused and shrugged)
I actually thought this was kind of self explanatory, but I guess I've been hanging around my nail friends too much. A nuggle is a play on muggle, from Harry Potter, which means a non-magical person. So, a nuggle is a non-nail person, hence the title of this two part series.

Ombre
J: A hat. (after this answer, I got the distinct feeling that maybe I had broken him)
T: Colours that go in a sunset, a fading thing.
No, it's not a hat. The ombre trend was all over everything last year, from hair, to clothes to nails to Adam Levine's face, so I am a little surprised Tess and Juwan were not more informed about this. Anyway, I digress. Ombre is the same as a gradient, where you start with one colour at the cuticle and you transition through one (or more) colour/s by the time you reach the free edge. Or you can do it across the nail, in a sideways gradient.

Teabagging
J: Teabagging your nails for polish.
T: When you literally put tea bags on your nails.
I must confess, when I first heard about this, I also thought you just put teabags on your nails, or you were meant to soak your nails in tea or something. But now I know better and I shall share this knowledge with you. The teabag method, as it's also known, is the technique of using a small bit of teabag to patch up bits of your nails when they'e started to rip/tear.

Top Coat (what it is and does)
J: Protects the nail and is see through. Ah yes, I am so smart. (smiled and looked rather happy and so I guessed I hadn't broken him after all)
T: Protects the nail and seals the polish in.
Again, well done to both of you. A top coat is essentially the opposite of a base coat. It's a clear polish that dries shiny and glossy (unless you have a matte one) and protects the nail from chipping and seals the polish in.

Shimmer
J: A shimmery colour.
T: Polish that shimmers.
Both of you got this right as well. A shimmer is another type of finish, just like creme and crackle, except this one is, you guessed it, shimmery.

Shrinkage/Shrinking
J: When the colour starts fading away. Or maybe it's a changing colour thing. Or when your nail shrinks hehehe that would be funny. Or when your nail starts chipping.
T: When it shrinks. (she didn't elaborate any further than that).
Shrinkage occurs with some top coats as they dry. As the polish dries, it contracts and shrinks, causing it to peel away from the colour underneath, leading to an ugly line around the edges of the nail. However, you can prevent this by making sure you cap the free edge and make sure you paint over all the base colour.

Staining
J: When it stains your nails with a faded colour when you take it off.
T: When you take off nail polish but it leaves a yellow stain behind.
True and true. Polishes often stain with a yellow colour, but it can be blue or teal. In terms of polishes to watch out for, teal polishes are generally the worst, but blues and greens can also be pretty bad.

Undies
J: I have undies! They're red!! I dunno, drawing undies on your nails?
T: Undercoats? I don't know...
Umm... Sort of like undercoats. Undies are the base colour you put on under glitters and other non-opaque polish to make it a opaque colour. They are definitely not anything to do with the underwear you are sporting.

VNL
J: Very nice light.
T: Very nail... Umm... I dunno. But it's got nail in it.
Yes Tess, it does have nail in it. But that was the only bit you got right. VNL is a take on the visible panty line (VPL) and it stands for visible nail line, which means when you can still see a bit of your nail through the polish. This often happens with jellys and neutrals.

And at the end of this second section, Tess scored better and got 9 right, out of a possible 16 and Juwan trailed behind with only 5.5. Adding that on to the totals from Part 1 means the final tally stands at:

Tess: 16/31
Juwan: 10.5/31

Unfortunately, based on this score, Juwan failed quite dismally while Tess just scraped in with a pass. However, while I feel Juwan did exceedingly well considering his nail polish experience is just about limited to watching me paint my nails once or twice and that one (entertaining) time he let Tess paint his nails, I feel Tess should have scored much better than she did, considering her polish collection is not insubstantial and she paints her nails quite frequently and she lives with me. So try harder next time kiddo.

And that concludes my nail art term directory/dictionary/part interview type thingie. I hope you enjoyed it because I certainly did! It has probably been the most fun I've had writing a post in a long time. If you have any questions about any of the terms, or another term that I've forgotten, let me know in the comments and I'll add it in.